In the U.S., the country that consumes three million tons of bananas each year and produces almost none of them, bananas are incredibly cheap—usually less than 89 cents per pound, or in some supermarkets, just 19 cents apiece. That’s for fruit grown thousands of miles away and transported in ships and trucks across oceans, highways, and national borders to get to your door. In fact, cheap barely captures it. For Americans, bananas are practically free.